


A Little Taste of What Should Have Been

by hailqiqi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ear Piercing, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Milestones, deep loving friendships, don't do this at home go to a professional, kind of implied angst, pidge with a crush (only implied tho), surprise presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 09:40:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13268772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hailqiqi/pseuds/hailqiqi
Summary: Despite the persistent begging, Samuel Holt had forbade his daughter from getting her ears pierced until she was sixteen.Fast-forward four years and 'missing out on getting my ears pierced' was just another reason to be angry at the Galra. Pidge was only mildly bitter about it - there were bigger reasons to be angry, after all - but it still hurt to think about.Then the topic of 'what would be different if we were still on Earth?' comes up, and her friends realise that this one's something they can rectify.





	A Little Taste of What Should Have Been

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Engineer104](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/gifts).



> So, Reem mentioned on tumblr that Pidge might have been looking forward to getting her ears pierced but never got the chance, and the idea wormed its way into my brain and refused to leave. So here you go. Katie Holt getting to drop the mantle of child soldier and be a normal teenager for once.

Pidge stared at the tiny objects in Hunk’s hands, mouth agape.

“Uh… Right now?”

“Yeah, that was the plan!” Lance grinned at her, holding up a little bottle and waggling it by his ear. “You sit down and stay still, I’ll poke the holes, then we’ll pop these in and - ka-ching! You’ll have the pierced ears you always wanted!”He struck what he obviously thought was a dashing pose, then flicked his own ear lobes and laughed.

Pidge simply stared. “Ka-ching?”

Lance nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, ka-ching!” Hunk and Allura looked equally excited, but all Pidge felt was shock.

Allura’s excitement faded first, quickly shifting to concern at her lack of response. “Did you not want earrings, Pidge? Or…perhaps you just don’t like these ones?”

The question snapped Pidge out of her stupor and she shook her head quickly. “No! No, I mean, I do want them! Just—” She waved her hands wildly, gesturing at the earrings in Hunk’s palms “— where did you even get these?”

Hunk beamed at her.

“Well, see, Lance said you were probably allergic to everything except gold, and it turns out gold was like really common on Altea so Allura has a lot of it, so she gave me some to melt down and I made these for you!”

Pidge’s brain short-circuited again. Allura melted down her jewellery to make them?

All of Allura’s jewellery was from before Altea fell, before Allura lost everything. Every single piece was a reminder of Allura’s people, and not a single one was replaceable.

Yet she’d let Hunk melt some of it down — she’d given up a piece of her _home_ — just because Pidge had said she wished she could feel pretty?

Her eyes sought Allura’s. “You gave up some of your jewellery for me?”

“It seemed important to you,” Allura replied, a gentle smile on her face.

“Thank you,” she whispered, blinking back tears. “I know how much your jewellery means to you.”

Allura smiled warmly, but whatever she was going to say was cut off when Lance leaned forward to gently bounce the bottle of disinfectant off Pidge’s forehead.

“So, are we gonna do this or what?”

 

—

 

And that was how Pidge found herself kneeling sideways on the couch, face inches away from Lance’s shoulder as he disinfected first two sewing needles and then the earrings with a professional air.

She eyed him doubtfully. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Of course I do!” He replied, flourishing the needle at her. “I used to pierce my own ears every summer. I’m good at this.”

“Why did you have to do it every summer?” Allura’s form was blocked by Lance’s torso, but her voice was curious. “I thought you said these piercings lasted forever?”

“They do if you keep them in, but the Garrison made him take them out when school started again,” Hunk replied. Pidge couldn’t see Hunk either, but he must have been hovering somewhere behind Lance with Allura.

They were obviously sticking around to watch the show. Pidge was a little surprised that Allura wanted to watch after how shocked she’d acted when she first found out that humans injured themselves for decoration, but she supposed the boys must have talked her round.

Pidge hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much. She didn’t want to make a fuss in front of everyone.

“Why would they make him take them out? Didn’t you say they were common on Earth?”

“Eh, they’re more of a girl thing than a guy thing,” Lance answered, shrugging. “Girls were allowed to have studs but guys weren’t. It’s a dumb rule, if you ask me.”

Allura hummed in consternation and Pidge knew she was making her ‘humans are weird’ face. The thought made Pidge smile.

“So. You ready to do this?”

Anxiety immediately bubbled up as her eyes fell on the needle Lance held in the scant space between them. Quiznak. She was a Paladin of Voltron — she’d faced down far worse than a teeny, tiny needle. Why was she even nervous?

Even so, she couldn’t stop the question from slipping out. “Will it hurt?”

Lance just laughed. “I’m going to make a hole in your ear, Pidge. Of course it’s gonna hurt.” He paused, tilting his head back to catch her gaze, a smirk on his lips. “You can handle it though, right?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Of course I can handle it.”

“Good girl.”

Pidge sucked in a breath as he cupped her jaw in his hand, tilting her head gently and leaning closer to get a better view as he rubbed some disinfectant on her lobe. He smelt clean, like saltwater and peppermint, and his breath was warm on her cheek. 

Pidge needed a distraction, badly. Her eyes landed on the earrings.

“So, Allura gave up her jewellery, and Hunk made the earrings,” she managed to get out, trying for a teasing tone. “What about you? You just make the holes?”

Lance leaned back, bringing a hand to his chest in mock indignation. “Excuse me, I’ve got the most dangerous job!”

“And what’s that?”

Hunk chimed in from somewhere behind him. “He’s got to be the one in arm’s reach when the needle actually goes in!”

Everyone laughed, and Pidge’s nerves melted away as she joined in. Lance was close, but that was okay, because he was a friend and she trusted him. He was going to put a hole in her ear, but that was okay, because it wouldn’t hurt that much and technically she did want him to. They’d kind of sprung it on her and she wasn’t really prepared, but she _had_ been looking forward to getting her ears pierced for years, so it was okay, right?

On top of that, her friends had come up with a way for her to do something a normal sixteen-year-old girl would do. They’d put in a lot of effort over an off-hand comment over dinner. If they were gonna go this far for her, then Pidge could do this.

One deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. It’s only a little needle. It’d be fine.

“How d’you wanna do this? You want me to count, or would you rather I just do it?”

The nerves were back.

“Umm… Count? No, wait, just do it! I don’t wanna know!”

Lance raised an eyebrow at her. “Okay then. Close your eyes, and I’ll just do it. Ready?”

Pidge closed her eyes, taking another deep breath to centre herself, then nodded. Lance shifted on the sofa, moving closer, and she instinctively flung herself backwards. “Wait! Count! You’ve gotta count!”

Lance deadpanned, and so did Hunk over his shoulder. “Serious? Pidge, it’s just a piercing.”

She looked away and shrugged, biting her lip.

“Do you want to stop? It’s totally okay if you don’t want to go through with it,” Hunk said, concern in his voice.

“No! I still want to!” Pidge shook her head and fixed her gaze on Lance’s chin. “I guess I’m just nervous.”

Their expressions softened, and Hunk patted Lance on the shoulder as he leaned back again. Lance shifted forward and cupped her chin firmly in both hands. “Okay then. You have to stay still, okay?” Pidge tried to nod, but his hands stopped her. “That’s not staying still, Pidge.”

“Okay.”

“If you want a distraction… Hmm…” Lance smirked. “I’m very handsome, you can stare at me.”

Her eyes flew to his face, heat already blooming across her cheeks.  He winked at her, a faint blush dusting his own cheeks, before tilting her head and moving his hands to her ear. “You ready?”

She smiled, eyes fixed on his features. “Yep.”

“Looking at my handsome face?”

Most definitely. “Yep.”

Lance reached down for the needle and brought it across to her ear, his gaze focused. “Right then. One… Two…” He paused. “Okay, that’s kinda creepy. Can you look somewhere else?”

Laughing, Pidge rolled her eyes and dropped her gaze to his collarbone. “Better?”

Lance nodded, the motion making his muscles shift under his shirt. “Much. And — Oh! Grab my jacket, will ya?” Pidge frowned in confusion, but raised her hands and gripped the fabric on each side, just beside the zip. “Good. That’ll keep your hands busy, and then you can’t punch me.”

Pidge laughed again, and gripped the fabric just a little tighter.

“Try and focus on your breathing!” Hunk chirped, and Pidge closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She felt Lance shift, but this time she ignored it. “Okay, ready? I’ll do it on three.”

Breathe in.

“One…” Breathe out. “Two…”

He pushed the needle through on ‘two’.

“OW!” Pidge yelped, somehow managing to stay still. “You jerk! You said you’d do it on three!”

She could hear everyone laughing as Lance messed around with the needle, sticking something on the back of it. Quiznak, that hurt. “I know, but I thought you’d be less nervous if I did it faster.”

“That is _not_ how it works, Lance,” she forced out through gritted teeth.

“Are you all right?” Allura at least had the decency to sound somewhat concerned.

“It hurt a lot worse than I thought it would!” To tell the truth, it felt like her ear was on fire.

“Can’t stop now, Pidge.” Lance said, laughing. “Breathe. We’re gonna do the other one in a minute.”

He started wiping down the second needle and Pidge worked to get her breathing under control. By the time her fists had relaxed their white-knuckle grip on his jacket Lance was tilting her head again, but this time in the other direction, making the needle in the first ear bounce against her neck. It was a weird feeling.

“Actually do it on ‘three’ this time,” Pidge grumbled as he wiped her lobe clean.

“Fine,” he chuckled. “Do you wanna count this time?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. Then you might feel more in control of it.”

Pidge paused. That actually sounded like a good idea. “Okay. Ready?”

“Ready.”

She took a deep breath.

“One… OW! LANCE!”

He finished pushing the needle through and bumped his forehead against hers in a quick apology. “Sorry. Thought you said ‘three’.”

“One sounds nothing like three, Lance!”

“If you say so,” he laughed, fiddling with the back of the needle again before leaning back to admire his handiwork. “There. Now you have pierced ears and look like a punk rocker.”

“Great,” Pidge said sarcastically, trying hard not to move her head too much. Moving hurt worse.

Allura's head appeared over the back of the sofa as she leaned in for a closer look. “Won’t we be putting the earrings in? These needles aren’t very practical.”

“We will,” Lance moved away to clean up the tissues he’d used, and Pidge immediately missed the warmth. “We’ve just gotta wait a few minutes to give the holes time to set.”

 

—

 

Ten minutes, lots of soreness and a few more curses later and Lance was holding up one of Allura’s compact mirrors for Pidge to look into.

“So? What do you think?”

Pidge leaned forward nervously. “I…”

She trailed off, her attention caught by a shimmer of light. She shifted closer, tilting her head this way and that to get a better look. Her ears were red and swollen, but little gold circles sat in the middle of each one, making her hair look lighter and her eyes look brighter. She had earrings.

She had earrings. _Actual earrings_ , she reminded herself. Piercings. Something she was meant to get done when she turned sixteen, but everything had gone to hell long before then and she’d never got the chance. And she thought she never would, but now here she was, looking in a mirror and seeing herself looking back with _actual earrings_.

Somewhere at the edge of her awareness she knew her friends were waiting for an anwer, but she couldn’t tear her eyes off the mirror. Sixteen had always been meant to be a big year for her. Sixteen was when she was going to start flight school. Sixteen was when Matt was going to teach her how to drive a car and help her get her licence. Sixteen was when she was finally going to get her ears pierced, after begging her dad for the first half of middle school. Sixteen was when she was going to get her first job.

But she hadn’t done any of that. When she was fourteen the Kerberos mission had gone down, and when she was fifteen she shot into space and became a child soldier. Her sixteenth birthday had been spent in a healing pod, recovering from a concussion. All her plans for this year had gone up in smoke a long time ago.

But now Katie Holt, a.k.a. “Pidge”, was sixteen years old and had pierced ears. Somehow, she’d managed this milestone.

A single tear slipped down her cheek.

“Uh, Pidge?” She tore her gaze from the mirror to look at Hunk’s concerned face. “You okay there?”

She nodded and bit back a sob, half-laughing as hot tears started spilling over, faster than she could wipe them away. A gentle hand patted her shoulder. Lance.

“You hate ‘em that much, huh?”

The floodgates opened and she launched herself at him, sobbing the words out as she wrapped her arms around his torso and buried her face in his chest. “I… Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Lance hugged her back, holding her close. “You’re very welcome.”

She could only sob in reply, but that turned into a squeak when strong arms wrapped around the pair of them and Hunk piled on, squishing her from behind. “I want in on this! Group hug!”

Allura laughed and pushed her way in, resting her face next to Pidge’s. “I’m very glad you like them.”

Pidge gave a watery laugh. “I love them.”

And at that moment, as she pulled the princess closer, leaning back into Hunk’s warm embrace, and feeling Lance’s firm grip on her back, Pidge felt very loved herself.


End file.
